Mayborn Museum Podcast: Recent Episodes
Mayborn Museum Complex
Artist Lee Jamison discusses his newest work, a life-sized mural of a Columbian mammoth.
The Largent collection of 19th century children’s glassware is one of the largest in America with more than 5,000 pieces. Look around the exhibit and you will see everything from cake stands and punch bowls to tiny candlesticks and steins.
This log house was built before the Civil War between 1842 and 1849 and was used by a family in Perry, Texas. The ceiling and inside logs are original.
Playing games can improve your five senses. Try playing the firewood game, ring and pen and the rock game and see how well you improve your keen senses.
Imagine living in a Native American village. Girls make dolls from buffalo wool; boys use buffalo leg bones for pretend riding horses. Tipis were built in familiar locations near family and friends and easy to locate.
The Comanche Indians were a nomadic group that traveled often and built their homes out of softer female buffalo hide. This tipi consists of nine hides and was designed to last up to 10 years.
The city of Waco is named after the Huaco Native American Tribe, which first settled in the area. They built grass houses made of wheat grass designed to last for several years such as this one.
Hear about this fascinating and rare discovery north of Waco on the Brazos River where the skeletal remains and burial goods of an adult male and young girl believed to have lived 11,000 years ago were found.
Stratigraphy is used by archaeologists to identify and date an object by the layer of the soil that it is found in. Stratigraphy also provides clues about the climate and geography of the earth at a particular time.
The Stone Site is an archeological dig located 10 miles north of Waco, which archeologists believe was the site of a large Tawakoni Village settled in 1770. It is believed that 750 people lived in the village until it was abandoned in 1778.
Several plants and animals have adapted to forest life by blending in with their environment. See what you can find hidden in the dioramas.
Take a stroll through a forest from the 1850s. The left side of the room depicts the Post Oak forests of Central Texas and the right side is the Piney Wood of East Texas.
The early Texas settlers described the grasses as being taller than a grown man. Farmers quickly discovered that the soil, for which the Blackland Prairie was named, was rich and fertile.
There are more than 30,000 species of forest insects found in Texas. Many depicted in this diorama are cleverly disguised by camouflage. Try to find the Giant Walking Stick and Dog-Day Cicadas for starters.
This diorama represents the long cliffs and steep slopes found in Central Texas formed by erosion or the movement of earth along a fault line.
This skeleton was believed to have lived 75 million years ago and was found in Gholson by a couple who discovered it sticking out of the ground following a rainstorm.
These fossilized remains of a Plesiosaur were found below the Waco dam in 1948. These large carnivorous water reptiles were not dinosaurs and lived 199 to 145 million years ago.
Welcome to Central Texas during the Cretaceous Period when much of the area was covered by warm, shallow seas dominated by large reptiles like plesiosaurs, crocodiles, and giant turtles.
See an ivory cribbage board made from a walrus tusk, as well as a variety of other tusks, and a canine tooth from a Hippopotamus of the White Nile in Africa.
This Venus flower basket sponge lives in deep ocean waters near the Philippine Islands but it’s not alone. A male and female shrimp live inside it and keep it clean in exchange for protection.
View hairballs formed in the stomach of cows and buffalo, which the Native Americans consider good luck charms and use to play games. Nearby is a three-banded Brazilian armadillo, which is the only armadillo species that can roll into a ball.
See one of the oldest objects in the museum’s collection: a fossilized horn of a Triceratops found in Colorado and believed to be 65 to 73 million years old.
Learn about the museum’s expansion under curator John K. Strecker Jr., who served for 30 years.
Welcome to this random display of the unusual and eclectic. These unnamed items scattered through filled cabinets and drawers originated with 19th century museums when collections were designed to shock and amaze rather than entertain and educate.
Watch the complete lifecycle of a butterfly as it goes through four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. View this amazing metamorphosis from the laying of a tiny egg on a specially-picked plant.
Spiders, scorpions, insects, millipedes, and centipedes all have jointed legs and are arthropods found in the Live Insect Room.
Invertebrates make up 99 percent of all animals on the earth and some species, like spiders, are so small they go unnoticed. But one thing they all have in common is they lack backbones.
The Mexican Kingsnake is known as the king of all snakes. It eats lizards and other snakes as well by unhinging its jaw to open its mouth to three times its normal size. That’s a mouthful.
This pretty Cockatiel hails from the land down under, Australia. Learn about this fun-loving and sweet bird, and have a g’day mate.
This type of lizard lives in trees in the South and Central American rainforests and camouflages itself through its green color. It likes light and keeps warm by soaking up the sun. Don’t anger it or it will hiss and spit at you.
Try to spot this gecko, which is named for its leopard-type spots. Their unique spots help these nocturnal lizards hide in their rocky habitat. Don’t worry if their tails fall off. They grow right back.
Learn why these turtles are known as the “elaborately decorated” reptiles with special yellow markings and a cool shell that is hinged on its belly to keep predators at bay.
Learn about the origin of model railroading. This hobby began in the late 1800s and took off in the United States in the 1920s, and now enjoys widespread popularity. Hear how trains are classified by size and scale as you tour our own popular model train.